Too Graduates!

 On Saturday I skipped out on the Derby to head to my alma mater and watch my best friend Too graduate from college.

It's funny to me that we're friends.  I mean I never imagined that my potluck roommate from freshmen year of college would turn out to be one of the dearest, closest friends of my life.  I never imagined that another person could know me so wholly and, whether she agreed or not,  love me anyway.

 Too and I lived together for three years.  We laughed and cried and studied and didn't study and took pictures and skipped class and went to chapel and skipped chapel and spent entire nights talking.  We've been through the thick of it, this girl and me.

Too taught me what it's like to have a sister.  Her soul is one of beauty, and I'm so blessed to know it.

I am so proud of all her accomplishments, the things she will accomplish, and all the good she'll do (and already has done) for our world.  




Congratulations, pal.

P.S. This is day thirteen of my twenty-one day blogging adventure. So far, so good. Then again, it is only day thirteen. . . .Is it safe to say yet that it actually is going well? 

What I Said about Writing

In a class on methods of teaching English, we were charged to make a list of our philosophy or beliefs about writing. In a class full of future English teachers, we had a great time hearing what everyone had to say. Here's what I turned in.

My Philosophy on/Beliefs about Writing

1. Mean What You Say

Write about things that interest (or bore) you, and tell the truth about them. Writing is easier and more fun when you believe what you’re writing. Plus, an audience can usually spot a faker!

2. Say What You Mean

Say what you mean, and leave it at that! More words does not equal better writing. Don’t skimp your readers on valuable information, but don’t drone on and on either. Find a balance.

3. Learn to Read

If you want to be a better writer, learn to be a better reader. You’ll enhance vocabulary, learn new sentence structures, and develop a sense of your own style (among other things).

4. Remember Who You Are

Use your own voice and your own style. Always be yourself. Readers don’t want you to sound like every other writer; they want you to sound like you!

5. Edit, Revise, Rest, Repeat.

Your first product should not be your last. Don’t give up and call a first attempt bad, try to work with it. The ‘goodness’ will come, so edit carefully, make your corrections, and then give yourself a break before you start the process over again.

Passing Time

This is a picture of my bed my first year in college when I was a wee freshman. This is before I had made the girlfriends who would become my family, my sisters. This is before I learned how to really study. This is before I knew that whatever life threw at me, I could handle it.

It seems like it's been more than just two years since I slept in Cathcart 105, but in the same strange way it seems like just yesterday that I moved in and made this bed for the first time. Isn't it funny how time passes quickly and slowly all at the same time? I think so.

Here's What's Happening Now...

I just finished reading Julie & Julia. It was a very good read, a wonderful book. I got the book for Christmas, and I also received Julie Powell's second novel, Cleaving, and I am excited to read that soon (or maybe not so soon since my life is consumed with, well, life). At any rate, I'm excited to read that novel as well. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about how I made a guinea pig of Julie & Julia; it was quite fun.

So, as the title of the post promises, here is what is happening in my life right now:

Most of the gang is here. Charles is missing because she is at work right now. That's right, Charles is a girl. Please note that her parents are not cruel human beings; (from what I hear, her mother is a saint) they did not, in fact, name her Charles. Charles is a precious nickname that I gave her. (Incidentally, I'll be referring to all of my friends by their nicknames because I think it's more fun that way.)

Okay, so Charles isn't here, but the rest of us are.

I am in my room typing this blog post. Before I began this endeavor, I had just finished reading a good novel. I had to start reading the novel in the first place to serve as an escape from the Mini Panic Attacks that were looming over my head.

~MPA 1: I filled in my planner, and it's looking like the next five weeks are going to be insane. Are my teachers neurotic? How in the world can all these assignments be completed in FIVE WEEKS? I do not have super powers; oh dear, I'll probably just have to fail everything. Wait, I can't fail now; it's my last semester for crying out loud!

~MPA 2: It's my last semester?!?! I'm going to be done with college? Didn't I just get my high school diploma in May? (For anyone who lost track, I got it in 2007) I don't want to leave my friends; they're my family. I need them. I can't believe I'm graduating (I know, I used the 'g-word, but I felt it was appropriate) and getting married.

~MPA 3: Married!? What am I going to do about my wedding and the guest list and inadvertently leaving people off and someone getting their feelings hurt and other people wondering why we even invited them and who all is actually going to show up in Seaside to witness my nuptials and what if no one comes and what if everyone comes and what if everyone turns out to be more than 200 people (that's how many the chapel holds) and what if I don't find a dress.

And the 'what-ifs' ensued, so I opted for a nice escape-read and one of the cupcakes Too baked (they were delicious!), and now I'm here.

Kanis and Too are in the living room working on Too's Rubik's Cube; Kanis is teaching Too how to solve it using logic. Kanis is saying things like:

~"See, that's how it works! Isn't that so awesome! You just use all this weird logic and it works out!"

~"Once you figure out how to solve it, you'll be so happy. It just takes some practice."

~"It uses all this cool logic that's kind of confusing but so much fun, and it keeps my brain happy."

~"Look at you! You're ready for the next step!"

All this business with the cube is a bit over my head, and all those little squares make me a bit nervous anyway, so I just smile and nod and say encouraging things to Too as she embarks on this cube solving journey.

Tater is in the kitchen scrubbing feverishly at a cupcake pan that has a ridiculous amount of that baked-on, brown, burnt-looking goo that appears on metal baking pans. When you get a good look at it, it's pretty gross, so she's doing her best to remove it.

La is about to go to bed. That's right, I live with a college student who works hard to get in bed by 10 on a regular basis. It's quite cute, actually.

There you have it, folks. The Tuesday night happenings in Shores 204. In case you're concerned, the MPAs are no longer looming over my head; don't worry.

The Prints of my Fingers

On Tuesday, I had my fingerprints taken.

Relax, I didn't do anything illegal to warrant this action. In order to receive my initial teaching license upon graduation, my fingerprints need to be documented and run by the Arkansas State Police, FBI, and Child Protective Services to make sure I'm not a scary criminal.

I can't lie, I was pretty excited about this fingerprinting. So, if you're a wonderer like me and you've never been fingerprinted, I'll tell you what its like.

First of all, it's a little more complicated than it seems. In the event that you're finger printed, you'll be tempted to do it yourself; however, you must be patient and relaxed as the officer twists your fingers around so that they produce the perfect print.

The "stamp pad," if you will, of ink isn't like a stamp pad you and I are used to either. It feels like a cool, almost damp table top. It is red.

So, you let the officer roll your fingers on to the red stamp pad and then press them on to your very own fingerprint sheet. Then, the officer instructs you to wash your hands, and by the time you return, he has placed your fingerprint sheet into a magic drying box and when he retrieves it your fingerprints are no longer red; they've turned black.

It is so cool; I thought it was, anyway.

Well, folks, there you have it. That's how fingerprinting goes down.

This is a photo of a fingerprint sheet that I found on the internet. It looks a lot like mine, except these fingerprints happen to belong to Malcolm X. I wanted to take a picture of my sheet, but I sensed that might annoy the officer, so I refrained from asking.

You know how you don't want something until you can't have it? Well, here's the other thing about fingerprinting: NO LOTION. If you put lotion on your hands, the lotion fills in the lines, and your prints won't take properly. My teacher, Mr. W., had warned us extensively about this, so I was prepared live sans lotion on Tuesday.

But, oh golly goodness, how I longed to have lotion on my hands. Just to clarify, I'm not even a lotion fanatic. I love lotion, yes, but I don't have to use it every day. On Tuesday, though, I needed it. My hands felt dry and itchy and cracky and gross.

I cannot describe to you just how much knowing that I couldn't have lotion that morning made me want to use it, need to use it, even more. Once the fingerprinting was over, my hands felt totally fine and normal; the dryness, itchiness, and crackiness had all miraculously disappeared.

Isn't it weird how we sometimes want the one thing we can't have? I think it's a really funny part of our nature as humans (or at least my nature as a human).

For those of you wondering, I abstained from lotion use before my fingerprinting. =]

I hope you have a Happy Wednesday.

The 'g word' and other thoughts.

Okay, so I know it isn't Christmas yet, but I get in 'holiday mode' a couple of weeks after Halloween. I love, love love this time of year. I always enjoy watching the color of the leaves change and stepping on crunchy leaves as I walk around campus (I know it's a weird fascination, but I enjoy it nonetheless).

Tomorrow marks the last day of school before Thanksgiving break :) I CANNOT wait. Even though I'm going to have a lot of homework to do over the week-long furlough, I'm still looking forward to it. A break's a break, right? I thought so, too.

The only issue I have with the approaching holiday is the approaching end of said holiday, because then it's crunch time in the school world. We're talking serious amounts of work. It always amazes me how much I can get done the two weeks before finals.

Now that I've brought up finals, I'll lay it back to rest (in a second), because the mention of finals means the mention of the end of the semester which means the mention of the beginning of the next semester which means the mention of the end of the next semester which means the mention of graduation which makes me nervous. I know I probably shouldn't be compartmentalizing all of the upcoming changes in my life, but I am. End of story. Okay, well, that's enough. No more mention of the 'g word.' Got it? Good.

The Fire Drill

I fear that one day the students in any given dormitory at Harding University, including myself, may all burn up and die. Why, you ask? Let me tell you, friend.

When a fire alarm sounds in a Harding dorm (okay, so I can't speak for EVERY dorm but I can for the three I've lived in), it is perceived as a nuisance, not a warning of imminent danger. Admittedly, I also despise the torturous, infernal sound that the fire alarm brings. I don't rush out the door faster than anyone else. In fact, the last time the fire alarm went off in my dorm (Monday) I took care to put on a different pair of pants, put socks and shoes on my bare feet, shut down my computer, search around for a book I wanted to take, and turn out all the lights in my apartment. The only reason I did these things semi-quickly is because of that sound, that horrid, ear piercing, maddening sound that the alarm makes inside my room.

Everyone knows that the fire alarm means there is a fire. However, since we have witnessed the alarm go off indiscriminately on several occasions, the alarm has lost its meaning. Dormitory fire alarms have lost their power. Instead of alerting students of danger, fire alarms are seen as annoying interruptions of life and are definitely not taken seriously.

Is this dangerous? Probably. Will anyone care? Probably not. Will I hurry when the dorm's fire alarm sounds again (because we all know it will)? Probably not.

I wish there was a way to keep humans from numbing themselves to warning signs like fire alarms, but I'm afraid there is not. It is my sincere hope that if a real fire breaks out in a dorm that by some gracious act of God, we will take it seriously and all arrive safely out of the building. The fact that we think we are invincible scares me, but I hope we never have to find out how invicible we really are.

Farwell, Emily (for now)

Well, it's over (my Senior Symposium, that is).

I presented my paper at 3:00 today along with Tabitha and Sadie (some of my dearest friends) who are also English majors. My presentation went rather smoothly, and thanks to an amazing second reader, I was asked questions that were coherent and answerable.

Overall, I count this day as a success! I feel as though an enormous burden has been lifted off of my shoulders. Throughout this process, I learned so many things, and I am quite grateful to have had this experience.

I am surprised to find that I still love Emily Dickinson's poetry, for I was afraid that I would grow tired of hearing her voice and trying to delve into the inner workings of her mind. Perhaps I tired of this a little, but not as much as I thought I would. Granted, I do not want to talk about her poems on death or anything about negative capability for the next several days, but I am not completely burned out on the discussion ;).

Mostly, I am just glad to be finished. Senior Symposium is a milestone, another rite of passage for the undergrad, and I completed it. Thank goodness.

A Celebration Is in Order....Almost

Well, I am rid of my paper on Emily Dickinson..almost! Truthfully, I think I'll never be done thinking about Dickinson and the way she used death as a prominent theme in her poetry.

Anyhow, this post is one of a celebratory nature because today I turned in my final draft of my senior symposium paper! Upon submitting my paper, I felt quite an array of emotions: relief, nervousness, excitement; all sorts of things ran around in my head. Now, all I can do is hope that all of my hard work pays off in the end.

My presentation is Friday, and that is a completely different adventure in and of itself. No worries, I'll keep you updated ;)

How Quickly Life Does Move!

I cannot believe it's already midterm week! It seems like this semester is flying by (the same observation I usually make about every semester, haha!).

So far, this has been one of my busiest semesters, but what's a senior year for anyway?

I'm turning in my senior symposium paper on Monday. I can't believe it's already time for that, but I am pretty excited to get it in. When I was assigned such an early presentation date (Oct. 23), I thought it would be awful to have to get everything done so quickly. However, after going through the process and learning how time consuming it is, I have realized that presenting on the first date is a blessing for me. After the 23rd, it's over and done with, so I'll have a little more time in my schedule to get more done and have a little extra free time (hopefully ;-).

I just finished reading Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and I loved it! I'm excited to start reading Wanting by Richard Flanagan. It's an assignment for my Post Colonial Lit class, so I hope it's good. I'll let you know :)